Interpretive Summary: Chicken fillets (Pectoralis major) are one of popular items for food service. In the store, especially in fast food service stores, ready-to-cook meat products are commonly stored in freezers before use. The frozen meat can be cooked either directly from a frozen stage or after thawing. However, there is a lack of published information about the effects of these two methods on sensory quality of cooked chicken fillets that are processed for food service uses. The objective of this study was to compare sensory quality of cooked chicken breast meat either prepared directly from a frozen state or prepared after freeze/thaw. Fresh broiler fillets were processed by a local commercial processing plant for food service following the specifications by fast food restaurants. After procured, they were stored in a -20C freezer until use. On the sensory evaluation date, the fillets were either cooked directly from the frozen state or after the frozen samples were thawed at a refrigerator (2C) overnight. Both samples were cooked to an endpoint temperature of 78C. Sensory quality was evaluated by trained descriptive panelists using 0-15 universal intensity scales for 7 texture and 10 flavor attributes. Our results show that there were no differences (p>0.05) for sensory descriptive flavor attributes of cooked fillets between the two sample preparation methods, indicating that the sensory flavor profiles of cooked meat prepared using these two methods were similar to each other. However, sensory texture attributes cohesiveness (intensity score was 5.2) and hardness (4.9) of the breast fillets cooked directly from the frozen state were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those of the breast meat cooked after being thawed (4.9 and 4.6). Our results indicate that the sample preparation methods used to cook frozen broiler breast fillets can result in differences in sensory texture quality of chicken breast fillet specifically processed for food service use.

Technical Abstract:
Chicken fillets (Pectoralis major) are one of popular items for food service. In the store, especially in fast food service stores, ready-to-cook meat products are commonly stored in freezers before use. The frozen meat can be cooked either directly from a frozen stage or after thawing. However, there is a lack of published information about the effects of these two methods on sensory quality of cooked chicken fillets that are processed for food service uses. The objective of this study was to compare sensory quality of cooked chicken breast meat either prepared directly from a frozen state or prepared after freeze/thaw. Fresh broiler fillets were processed by a local commercial processing plant for food service following the specifications by fast food restaurants. After procured, they were stored in a -20C freezer until use. On the sensory evaluation date, the fillets were either cooked directly from the frozen state or after the frozen samples were thawed at a refrigerator (2C) overnight. Both samples were cooked to an endpoint temperature of 78C. Sensory quality was evaluated by trained descriptive panelists using 0-15 universal intensity scales for 7 texture and 10 flavor attributes. Our results show that there were no differences (p>0.05) for sensory descriptive flavor attributes of cooked fillets between the two sample preparation methods, indicating that the sensory flavor profiles of cooked meat prepared using these two methods were similar to each other. However, sensory texture attributes cohesiveness (intensity score was 5.2) and hardness (4.9) of the breast fillets cooked directly from the frozen state were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those of the breast meat cooked after being thawed (4.9 and 4.6). Our results indicate that the sample preparation methods used to cook frozen broiler breast fillets can result in differences in sensory texture quality of chicken breast fillet specifically processed for food service use.